Express Yourself

Earth, water, fire, and air are elements that most of us are familiar with.  The 5^th chakra, or the throat chakra is associated with the element of ether.   Ether is related to the concept of vibrations and is said to be the stuff that angels are made of.  While the heart chakra acted as a bridge between the tangible and intangible, the throat chakra tends to act as a gateway from the physical world to that of the spiritual.

In Sanskrit, the throat chakra is referred to as “Vishuddha” which loosely translated means to purify.  It is represented by the colour sky blue and is located at the neck or throat.  When working with this energy centre, it is largely about communication and expression.  What do you say?  What do you hear?  Can you purify your thoughts and recognize what thoughts are truly yours and what thoughts came from elsewhere?  When you express yourself, are you sharing what is true to you, or are you expressing what you think others want to hear?  Do you truly listen to what others say to you and what you say to yourself, or are you filtering the information and perceiving it from a certain slanted point of view?  Lots of heavy work and soul searching comes along when focusing on this throat chakra! 

I KNOW

Do you know your magnificence?  Do you know how brilliant you really are?  Can you feel that bright light shining within you?  These are the things that we touch upon as we make our way up to the 7th or the crown chakra.  The crown chakra is a bit different than our other centers as it is the first one that is not located within our bodies.  So, this chakra moves beyond form and is not so much about the physical.  It’s about awareness.  Knowing and feeling that “thing” . . . that spark that is in everyone and everything – it’s the very essence of our being.     

I SEE

We’ve come to a place in our journey where turning inwards is the key.  Last time with the throat chakra, we spent part of our time turning in to deeply listen to what our heart had to say, and the other part expressing out this truth that we learned.  With the third eye chakra we get ready to settle in and discover our inner world.  While the throat chakra was about finding our inner sounds, the third eye is more about inner seeing and the pictures, colors, visions, images, words, etc that are created in our mind.  Our mind is what is focused on in this energy center.  While the other chakras worked in some way with the body and were associated with various body parts or organs, the third eye starts to move away from the physical and is all about the workings of the mind.  Working with our thoughts (and trying to sort through the thoughts that are actually ours and those that come from other people) and creating a vision of what we want our life to look like (instead of allowing these pictures to develop unconsciously) is what the third eye chakra is all about.

I LOVE

From the dynamic, exciting, sometimes intense fire element of the solar plexus (3rd) chakra, we move up to the more gentle and flowing air element of the heart chakra.  This 4th chakra is where we can find all of our answers.  It’s that place inside us that knows everything we need to know.  It’s the best teacher we will ever have (the Guru Haridya Manas (inner teacher) chakra lies within the heart chakra), and contains the only voice we should work on hearing and following.  It’s the bridge between our three lower chakras (the physical world and feelings) and our three upper chakras (the unseen world and thoughts).  So, our heart chakra is that place of perfect balance or the union between our feelings and thoughts and our conscious and subconscious minds.     

I CAN

From earth to water we move to the element of fire.  We spent time in the second (sacral) chakra having experiences, letting our emotions flow and figuring out what it is we like and don’t like.  Now that we have a clearer picture of what it is we want, it’s time to go for it.  This is what the third (solar plexus) chakra is all about. 

Our solar plexus chakra is our “get up and go” center.  It’s about recognizing our passions and expressing these passions in our own unique way.  This third chakra is about getting things done –not allowing ourselves to procrastinate and make excuses anymore.  The fire element is about transformation – becoming either who we want to be, or who we know we can become – and moving forward.  So what are some ways we can feed and fuel this fire and start to move forward?

I FEEL

From the power, strength and stability of the first (root) chakra, we move up to the more fluid, flowing and soft second (sacral) chakra.  The root chakra allowed us to build a strong foundation.  We became grounded and solid in order to move forward, knowing that even if we falter we will have this strong support to hold us up.  Now that we have this base, we can move towards figuring out what we want from our lives.  The key to discovering what makes us shine and lights us up is through our emotions. 

The sacral chakra is all about our emotional bodies.  We need to feel and experience things in our lives in order to realize what we like, what we don’t like, what we want or what we don’t want.  A major challenge for us in our society is how we are taught to deal with these emotions and what experiences we are “encouraged” to have. 

I AM

When doing chakra work, we often start with the root chakra.  The root chakra is very much about creating a strong foundation and having a solid base.  It is a lot easier to face our fears (which is the demon of the first chakra) when we feel supported, safe, and secure in who we are and what we are doing.

The root chakra largely focuses on our physical body and the things that contribute to our physical experience on this planet.  We can sometimes get a bit caught up in wanting to reach the higher chakras where we have the potential to have “mystical, psychic” experiences, that we glaze past the lower chakras in a rush to learn about how we can reach these heightened states of awareness.  I won’t lie when 

Can You Hear Me

 Many people carry tension in their neck, shoulders, jaw or all of the above.  This is the domain of Vishuddha or the throat chakra.  Why is this such a problem area for most of us?  “Our modern world bombards us with dissonance – vibrations that we tune out of our conscious mind while our body and nervous system continue to endure” Anodea Judith.  Not only are we surrounded by constant, insignificant noise on the outside, but we are encouraged from a young age to ignore the very thing on the inside that we should be listening for – our inner voice.  We are trained to “fit in,” avoid being different, and to look outside of ourselves for not only the causes of problems in our lives, but also to find the solutions.  As we are growing up, we are taught to believe that “somebody/something” else knows what is best for our lives.  We are not taught to trust our own internal wisdom. 

I Am Open

Welcome 2015 and welcome to my online space - one of my projects for the new year.  I stopped making New Year's resolutions a few years ago during a particularly tough emotional time where I looked back and realized I was setting resolutions based on what I thought I "should" be accomplishing.  When I got to the end of the year, I didn't have these things and it made me feel like somewhat of a failure.  I realize now that I wasn't basing my goals on what it was I truly wanted, and as I didn't really know at the time what it was I really wanted for my life, I came up with a word to set the tone for my year.  This seemed to work for me, and I've been coming up with words or phrases for each upcoming year ever since.  It wasn't until now that I realize that I was coming up with my own personal mantra, or intention, for the year.